The non-profit association Financité has filed a complaint with the Belgian Competition Authority against two new, interbank networks of ATMs. This non-profit organization has been fighting the downsizing of that network for some time now.
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Financité’s complaint is against the company Batopin – a public limited company whose shareholders are the four largest banks in the country, namely BNP Paribas Fortis, KBC, ING and Belfius – and Jofco, a cooperative of smaller institutions, such as Argenta, AXA Bank and Bpost. The non-profit association calls it ‘incomprehensible’ that such companies, ‘which focus on greatly reducing the service to users, can arise apparently without any restrictions’.
Neutral machines
Last year, Batopin announced to replace the more than 5,000 ATMs currently installed in its shareholders’ bank branches with 2,000 to 2,400 ‘neutral’ ATMs at 650 to 750 locations within a radius of up to 5 km around the home for 95 percent of the customers. population and within a maximum radius of 10 km around the home for 98 percent of the population. Financité, which works for greater financial inclusion, opposes this plan.
It now appears that Financité is trying to legally hinder the implementation of that plan through a procedure with the Belgian Competition Authority. “We were concerned about the two initiatives launched in 2019 and 2020 for the interbank management of ATM networks,” said researcher Anne Fily of Financité. The evening. ‘After investigation, we have established that no file had been submitted to the Belgian Competition Authority before the establishment of these two companies, which seems to us to be contrary to the law in that area’.
Financité further describes the two projects as an ‘anti-competitive practice’.
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